It looks like the fellow behind the stories for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2 has had his latest television project greenlit by CBS. NCIS: LA creator Shane Brennan has teamed with video game writer Jesse Stern for a show called Insecurity. The duo previously worked together on the mothership NCIS series.

G4 Network is dead. There's no denying that fact. Turn on the network and all you see is Cops and Cheaters re-runs, American Ninja Warrior, and Campus P.D. these days. The shows that made the network great have been canceled and the people who made those shows are working somewhere else now. I say all these horrible things because today's news about the network not being rebranded as The Esquire Network is no reason to have any hope that it will somehow be returned to its former glory.

During a press conference this morning in Japan, Sony announced a new micro-console called the PlayStation Vita TV. The 6.5cm by 10.5cm micro-console utilizes the PS Vita chipset and its system software, and supports the Dualshock 3 controller. The device allows 1,300 PS Vita, PSP, and classic PlayStation One games to be played on a television screen. The PS Vita TV will also support movies services, eBooks, and the PlayStation Plus service. Some PS4 games will be playable via Remote Play as well.

Jinni has inked a multi-year agreement with Microsoft to enhance entertainment discovery on Xbox video game and entertainment systems including the Xbox 360 and the upcoming Xbox One releasing in late November. Jinni is described by its creators as a "taste-and-mood based engine" that enables entertainment discovery using "content genetics" and an understanding of user preference analytics.

Game of Thrones is a show on HBO. It's kind of a big deal. I don't watch TV but even I've heard of it.

The show is so popular, in fact, that it's apparently one of the most pirated shows on TV. Let's take this straight to the top. HBO is owned by Time Warner. What do you think CEO Jeff Bewkes has to say about people watching without an HBO subscription?

This fall Fox will air a new show produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane called "Dads." If you haven't seen the barrage of commercials airing on Fox about the show, it's about two game developers played by Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi who have to deal with their fathers moving in with them. But critics who have seen an early screening of the upcoming show are saying it employs casual sexism and racism to tell much of its ill-received humor.

NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will host its fourth annual video game week June 17 -21 (12:35am ET on NBC). The weeklong event will likely feature a lot of the games being shown at E3 this week, along with Fallon's signature comedy sketches and special music guests and performances.

Musical guests to appear during the week also have ties to the video gaming world: on Monday Anamanaguchi will be taking the stage for their first live in-studio performance on American TV. The band is well-known for being at the forefront of the chiptune scene.

Deadline is reporting that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer - with entertainment studios president Nancy Tellem in tow - is taking meetings with big Hollywood studios and television companies to drum up support for Xbox One as an entertainment hub for the living room.

During today's big reveal of the Xbox One Microsoft showed off how seamlessly television works on the system. Our initial concern was "how do consumers get TV onto the Xbox" if Microsoft doesn't have some sort of agreement with them to allow it. Anyone who has a cable operator that doesn't support HBO GO on various platforms will know exactly what I'm talking about.

Microsoft announced that it plans to sell its ITPV business called Mediaroom to Ericsson. Microsoft said that the divesture of this company will put "100 percent of the company's focus on its TV consumer strategy for Xbox. The sale is still subject to regulatory approval, but it is likely to be finalized during the second half of 2013.

A few days ago, we reported that NBC Universal would be re-launching the G4 Network as the Esquire Network and that it would focus on men's culture. New content will include cooking competition Knife Fight, American Ninja Warrior, Parks and Recreation, Party Down, and travel show The Getaway.

So, my question to you, dear GamePolitics readers: are you going to watch it when it launches on April 22?

Well eventually it had to happen, and today G4 Network's fate was finally revealed. The network that used to be dedicated to geek culture and video games will now be focused on men's culture. The network owned by NBC Universal will be re-branded and relaunched as the Esquire Network on April 22nd. While the announcement promises that the network will expand on the technology, geek culture, and gaming content that G4 was known for, it's hard to imagine that happening with the end of such popular shows as X-Play and Attack of the Show being cancelled.

The director of such films as The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile has been forced to rename his new television show to Lost Angels. Screenwriter and director Frank Darabont had originally named the show L.A. Noir, but Rockstar Games sent him a letter warning him that they would sue him if he used the name. While the show may have some minor similarities to Rockstar Games' film noir style video game, it is actually based on writer John Buntin's 2009 nonfiction title of the same name.

On CNN's State of the Union with host Candy Crowley, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TENN.) sat in on a panel discussion about gun control and the likelihood of legislation being passed by the current Congress. But instead of discussing gun control, Blackburn decided to take a few shots at Activision's Call of Duty series. Blackburn said that in preparation to appear on the show she watched some video of the game and was shocked at the violence she saw... she also called the game "Call to Duty."

In a segment that aired during Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto's show this week, Daniel Greenberg joined in to discuss Senator Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) bill to study the effects of violent video games on children. Greenberg is the IGDA Anti-Censorship Committee Chairman and game developer at Washington D.C.-based Media Rez.

Hispanic television network Univision and Swiss online games site Miniclip.com have entered into a partnership to launch a co-branded online gaming property designed specifically for the U.S. Hispanic audience. Launching in December, Univision Juegos will make Miniclip's library of "more than 800 games" available to Univision.com's online user base.

Valve Software has launched Steam Big Picture today, bringing its popular digital distribution platform to HD television sets everywhere. The new version of Steam allows gamers to bring their games in Steam to the big screen with higher resolution - and with some games - full gamepad support. Out of the gate, Steam Big Picture offers about 30 games that can be played on a gamepad.

The creative team behind Adult Swim's Robot Chicken animated show detail a special episode of the show on the PlayStation Blog. The special episode, airing tonight at 10 PM ET during the Adult Swim mature cartoon block on Cartoon Network - features an imaginative PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale skit. Apparently Sony approached the Robot Chicken folks to create this special episode:

While Hulu Plus didn't make the content cut on Wii U's entertainment channel on launch day, it appears that the app for the popular movie and TV streaming service is available for use today, according to this Destructoid report. In case you didn't know, the Wii U Gamepad offers some enhancements to the service above other platforms - it serves as a second screen. It's hard to deny that these types of features are cool...

LG and OnLive announced this morning that the cloud-based gaming service will be pre-loaded on all LG Smart TVs in its Google TV (G2) lines, with current set owners receiving the app over the air today. The app allows players to stream games on their TV and access save files on PC, Mac or Android devices. It also allows them to play online with other LG TV and compatible device owners.

Earlier this year it was rumored that gaming and geek culture network G4 would be changing its format to support the "GQ" demographic, and that much of its most popular programming would either be reformatted or discontinued. Today we learn that it looks like its most popular programs will face the latter and not the former. Polygon is reporting that the network's two most popular shows have been cancelled.

An editorial in the UK edition of Huffington Post penned by Andrew Cole-Bulgin, Joint-CEO of Komixx claims that video games are "stunting children's imagination and inhibiting their ability to play together." The head of the children's television company says that he comes to this conclusion based on research the company conducted related to Toby's Travelling Circus, a new television program for children under the age of five.

There's been a slow slog towards bringing gaming to Smart TVs but Samsung is trying to lead the way with a new games portal designed for its Cinema 3D Smart TVs called Game World. Game World will offer both free and premium games to set owners and many of them will be playable in both 2D and 3D, according to Joystiq. Users will have to use either the Magic Remote that comes with the set or a supported third-party controller.

Adam Sessler officially exited stage right at G4TV, according to a Kotaku report, and while the split seems to be less than amicable, Sessler's representatives are playing down any tensions that might possibly exist between the long-time network host and the network. The last episode of X-Play featuring Sessler aired on April 25. Sessler had been the face of X-Play since its launch and a regular lead anchor on the network's coverage of various events from Comic-Con and GDC to DICE and E3.

If you weren't at PAX EAST in Boston then you missed out on some great panels. One of the wildest was The Escapist's Blankety-Blank panel, which recreated the classic TV game show Match game using a PAX East audience and a clever group of panelist to create a game-related version of the show.

UK games industry trade group UKIE last night praised the "high-profile success" of the Young Apprentice finale last night on British television (BBC One). The final for the show charged the two finalists with creating an online game and viral ad campaign to go along with it. If you haven't seen the episode yet and plan to catch it later this week, you might want to stop reading right now because we're going to reveal who won.

New data from Pew Research Center finds that young adults are using the Internet as a distraction - a distinction television use to have among that particular age group. A majority of young American adults are using the Internet for "fun" and to "kill time," according to a new report by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. But television isn't the only victim according to the data - video game console time is also being affected by Internet use, according to the data.

According to the Guardian, the independent UK broadcasting watchdog OfCom is examining ITV's use of footage from the Bohemia's ARMA 2 videogame in a documentary special that was presented as an IRA film from 1988. The video was shown during the show Exposure and was presented to viewers as real footage showing the IRA using weapons provided by Muammar Gaddafi.

A new research report from Knowledge Networks claims that Netflix has transformed the viewing habits of millions of U.S. consumers. The research, which the firm says was conducted a little bit before Netflix's much-discussed changes in its pricing policies, shows that 35 percent of U.S. consumers (ages 13 to 54) use Netflix for streaming or DVD or Blu-ray rentals at least once a month. The research also found that the average Netflix user watches 5 TV shows and 4 movies per week via the streaming or DVD-rental aspects of the service.

Shout box

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm

Andrew Eisen: Huh. I guess I'll have to check out a Let's Play to get a sense of the game.08/01/2015 - 5:47pm

Mattsworkname: It did, I found the idea of exploring a world at it's end, exploring the abandoned city of a disappeared alien race and the planets various knooks and crannies intriqued me.08/01/2015 - 5:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Did it appeal to you? If so, what did you find appealing?08/01/2015 - 5:43pm

Mattsworkname: Its an interesting concept, but it's not gonna appeal to everyone thats for sure,08/01/2015 - 5:40pm

Andrew Eisen: That sounds horrifically boring. Doesn't sound like an interesting use of its time dilation premise either. 08/01/2015 - 5:36pm

Mattsworkname: an observer , seeing this sorta frozen world and being able to explore without any restriction other then time. no enimes, no threats, just the chance to explore08/01/2015 - 5:34pm